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Nessa Du Valle
|name=Rowanessa Adelaide Du Valle |sex=Female |species= , |dob=20th |mob=6 |yob=-8118 |age=Ageless |facs=Grand CovenCategory:Grand Coven |birthplace=Near Tursac in Dordogne, France |height=5'3" |build=Healthy |hair=Dark Auburn |eyes=Lavender |skin=Fair |actor=Stockard Channing |music=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fhIQaqBkSg "Lothlórien," Lord of the Rings Musical] }}Overview= Nessa Du Valle is known by Bay Area locals to be the wealthy owner and proprietor of Rowanwood House, a safe haven for supernatural beings that resembles an old world manor house and seems to operate as a kind of posh bed and breakfast with mystic doorways to many different places. She may be a bit eccentric and old-fashioned, though she is also helpful and protective to those who come to her in need. She makes no secret that she is a witch with ties to the Grand Coven, but she has been away from society from so long that only those with very long memories might know much more about her. Personality A long life and countless experiences have instilled deep values and ideals in Rowanessa, though many of her ideas are quite progressive by modern standards. She believes in honesty, integrity, and just treatment, but even more so in personal responsibility, compassion, and loyalty. Her faith in the laws of man is flimsy at best, but she does acknowledge a higher standard which equates generally to treating others and their property with respect. She also expects such treatment in return and as such holds good manners in very high regard. Nessa does not hesitate to defend her ideals. While she will seldom raise a hand in violence unless absolutely forced to, she is all too willing to place herself between an innocent and danger, and she will do anything in per power to shield those in her care from harm. Day to day, Rowanessa is gentle, kind, compassionate, and has a good-natured if usually understated sense of humor. Of her personal traits, Rowanessa most values family and friendship, still holding to old world beliefs that the modern world sometimes seems to have forgotten. |-| Sheet= SIGNATURE ABILITY Before the Wind and Fire I Stand The Vale is the seat of Nessa's power, and it is very well defended against any power that might dare invade it. Within the realm, Nessa's divine nature is fully awakened, and she can command its powers as needed. However, if some force is able to break past the wards and threaten her home, Nessa can join her powers with its own to confront whatever threatens it. When her home is directly threatened in this way, Nessa can face down whatever threat may have arrived, and she can hold it back, willing it to pass no farther. Any force, no matter how terrible, can at least mostly be held at bay in this fashion. Minions or smaller forces may slip past, if the attack is overwhelming enough, but Nessa will be able to hold back the tide of darkness. In most cases, so long as she devotes herself fully to this task, the ability will last indefinitely, but she can do virtually nothing else so long as she makes her stand. In the case of a foe that extends beyond her own strength to the point that it should be able to crush her, for all her power, then she will have the strength to hold it back, but only long enough for anyone else in the Vale to flee to safety. Once she has no one left to protect but herself, then her defense will be powerful... but imperfect, and she will be left to confront whatever threat is left. SKILLS CASTING POWERS ADVANTAGES ]] WEAKNESSES |-| Background= Born from Antiquity So you want to hear the story. ("The" story, doesn't that sound a bit presumptuous? Well, nothing to worry over, I suppose.) It all begins with my father, back about ten thousand years ago or thereabouts. Don't gawk, dear; it's rude. And no comments on my age, if you please. Now, my father never had a name, but I've never heard it. He he may have had some connection to Alisanos, another ancient Gallic mountain god associated with the mountain ash or rowan tree. My birth came near the end of the Paleolithic era, as they call it now, in what has come to be known in the Magdalenian culture. My mother, who was a wise woman of their culture, consorted with a hill god of the rowan tree, and she later died birthing me. So it was that I came into the world with even more nothing than most. The village chieftain raised me as his own, but I really never cared much for the man. I was stubborn even then, and he believed that a woman existed for the sole purpose of bearing children, except for her hobby, which was of course to cater to his every whim. It was a miserable life in some ways, but it taught me the value of hard work and a well-kept home. Eventually, though, everyone I knew grew old and died. There's no need to be dramatic about it, it's all part of the natural process. Most of them ended up in a better place, anyway, but after a generation or two of unaging, the people grew suspicious. They decided that I was a goddess and tried to worship me, and I wasn't having that. I'd make a horrible deity, and at the time the idea utterly terrified me. So I fled. Off to See the World I traveled. I saw the natural wonders of the world around me, and I met a lot of rather interesting people. Unsurprisingly, many of them were not humans. Oh, it's not that I don't like humans--I've just always hated being dirty, and humans back then had such a poor idea of hygiene. It was not until the rise of the great empires that I encountered anyone human of much great interest, and I never settled long in one place. It's not that I'm a snob, dear, really--I just much prefer civilization to grubbing about in the wilderness. Call it a personal weakness. Wandering, I met people and I learned about the world around me. In Egypt I first took a real interest in housekeeping, while in Greece I studied the budding humanities. In ancient Japan I learned much of courtesy and hospitality, and in China I studied the arts of herbal medicine. It was centuries before I returned to Europe, but I didn't feel I'd missed too much. I made it in time to visit the halls of the ancient Norse cultures, to learn to brew mead and ale, and to fight with a sword. Of course, as time passed I saw many places more than once, the rise and fall of dynasties and empires. I never did get over watching them fall, you know. Sometimes it was a relief to see a line of tyrants fade away, but not all were such. Yes, I suppose some were a greater loss than others, but to see a way of life disappear, a world of lives be forgotten, always carries a certain sadness. Where was I? Ah, yes--music, art, language, and poetry always held my interest. Learning about gardening, housekeeping, history, culture--the basics of everyday life, curiously enough, fascinated me as much as the "higher" concerns. A good grasp on such "basics" made life more than merely existing. I took something from each place I saw, I was changed and I grew from it. I didn't realize it, then, but I was mastering magic by mastering the elements of life that it depends upon. That realization came when I returned home to what was, by then, called Gaul. Immersion in the World of Magic So yes, I eventually stumbled across my true nature. That is to say, it nearly got me killed. That was how I met Rauni, a devotee of the goddess Rönn. She claimed she could sense my power, and it was she who taught me to first use magic. In fact, she originally wanted to steal it from me because she thought I represented some kind of opposing force. It took a lot of fast thinking and even faster talking, but I eventually calmed her down, and we became friends in spite of our bad first encounter. I suppose we really only knew each other for a millennium or so, but it seems somehow I spent more time there than in all my travels of the ancient world. She taught me the awakening of my power, which had been growing as long as I had lived. Obviously, that made it considerable in strength--and the real problem was learning not to use too /much/ power, rather than too little. Once I got the hang of that, we set about organizing our knowledge and exploring the boundaries of magic together. It was quite enlightening, often exciting, but apart from knowing every possible detail about her daily habits I don't feel ever really "knew" her. She was that sort, forever enigmatic. After a thousand years together, when I had convinced myself that we were lifelong friends, she transformed herself into a rowan tree. I wasn't there at the time, and there was never any explanation. I was upset at first, really quite devastated, but I've always had a practical nature. Before long, I picked up and moved on. Around the time that history marks the dawn of the "Common Era," which by the way has always struck me as terribly arbitrary unless one happened to be a Christian, I took to wandering again. For a few centuries, I visited again all those lands I had known in my youth, and I found that while some remained havens of peace and beauty, others had descended into obscurity. I happened into the kingdom of Logres on the British Isles during the height of Arthur's reign--yes, yes, /that/ Arthur--though I never became a court fixture the way so many insisted on doing. Camelot was lovely, a realm halfway on Earth and halfway in the Otherworld, not unlike Avalon, but I've just never done well in a society where there is no way to avoid men who think their physical endowments justify their existence. The Queen of Benoic So, once again, I ended up back in Gaul. Benoic was a quiet little kingdom, wonderful in its own way, and I had quite a life there--until, of course, I fell in love with a king's nephew. That's where all the trouble started. Oh, I'd had lovers before--quite a few, actually, and no, dear, I don't feel that's really any of your business--but he was the first who persuaded me into a real marriage. And we were happy. Until the fool went and got himself killed in battle. I had disliked fighting before, but after that, well. Violence is a senseless thing, and I long for the day when man grows out of it. No, I'm not going to hold my breath, either. Thus I was left with his daughter to raise; he'd had another wife before me. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. The king died, and his sons ran off to play knight, and so my husband became heir to the throne. When he died I was left a widowed queen, which was rather against my preferences, but I feel I was able to do a lot with Benoic during my time. The daughter, though, was the problem. She had serious designs on the crown and, rather than get married and take her turn, she wanted to take me out of the picture. (In a sense I admired her dedication, but plotting, violence, treachery--those are hard to overlook.) It was all very sordid and very silly. She found some brave, empty-headed prince and made up stories about me, loosely based on truth. Soon enough everyone saw me as a "wicked witch" of a horrible stepmother, and the scandal got well out of hand. Rather than have a nasty confrontation, I left them to it. I let them believe they'd burnt me at the stake, and I retreated into the realm of my father's power. By now I had inherited, and it came to be the Vale--and it was the first time I chose to live there rather than the ordinary world. I spawned a few stories, I'll wager. With the "middle ages" now firmly upon us, I returned in a fairly acceptable state of wealth and comfort, often holding various titles due to convenient marriages and slightly embellished family ties. I even had a few children, here and there, and some of them were even children of my womb, but that again, dear, is one of those things that I shan't consider your business. Only a very few of their line are left, and I watch over them all. Yes, but it was a grand time. I was truly happy. Then some fool invented guns. The Pains of Imperialism and Industrialism So, yes. The early 1300s brought warfare to a new level. Now, any fool could stand and point a firearm at another man and kill him, and artillery--well, I'd rather not get started on that beastly nonsense. This was all more than enough for me, and for a brief time I went on a serious crusade to destroy the things, only to meet with far more opposition than I could ever have imagined. All my efforts, over a hundred years' worth, came to nothing more than a breath in a hurricane. Humankind had shown its choices, determined its path. War was growing only worse. I'm afraid, in the end, that I just gave up in disgust. The world seemed intent on believing in nothing and fighting over everything, so I chose to have a good, long holiday. I pulled my home in the Vale away from the Earth plane, and apart from looking in on my family I turned my back on the world I'd known. For centuries I did nothing more than practice my crafts, work in my garden, and wander the Ways of the Otherworld. Oh, I was happy--during that time I met Rhün, and we became Oathbound to one another. I'm quite certain I shall never love another man again, and since he is an immortal spirit of Fate, I think that's for the best--even if he does spend half his time as a giant wolf. I returned to the Earth here and there, but after binding myself to Rhün I found that I could not meddle in human affairs as I once had so freely, and it was likely for the best. The era had changed, and I had to change with it. Despite my visits to Earth, I didn't live in the world, not much at the least. Return to a Weary World During the years leading up to the 2000 CE the human collective consciousness established a strong sense of the turning of the era. It drew my attention, and I began to watch more closely. Such a different world, and so changed! The Veil had grown so thick, though, that I could no longer connect the Vale to Earth directly, and I could only steal back and forth between, watching as the world changed. What a mess, a clustering of wonders and horrors. Man could fly, could go to the Moon--the Moon! Yet the world was being savaged by pollutants, even the weather transformed, and I could feel Nature changing. Oh, yes, Nature adapts. I only hope that humanity can, as well. Then came the biggest change--in 2015 CE, the Veil was transformed, and the Earth and the Otherworld began to bleed together. I could not resist. I rejoined the Vale to the Earth realm, and I found a role to serve in a human city, not far from where the change had originated. I've even found a charming little song that fits the occasion: "California, Here I Come"! |-| Logs= Category:Character